Coping stijlen van patiënten met hersenletsel en familieleden in een revalidatiesetting

Acquired brain injury is a major health problem with an annual incidence in the netherlands alone varying between 1 and 2 per 1000 cases. Not only the patients’ lives, but also those of the caregivers, change dramatically and often permanently because of the patients’ brain injury, and they have to adjust to the new reality. Little is known about the factors that predict successful adjustment. The way one deals with everyday problems (coping) seems to play an important role. In this article, we briefly describe what is known about coping after brain injury in both patients and family members. Furthermore, we describe a study we have performed in a rehabilitation population with brain injury (n = 136). Our results showed that there was no association between the patients’ coping style and their cognitive functioning profile after the injury, that patients with a higher education most often reported active (adaptive) coping styles, and that patients at a later stage post injury most often used passive (maladaptive) coping styles. Passive styles were associated with lower psychosocial functioning in both patients and caregivers. Passive styles increased and active styles decreased over the course of and after rehabilitation. Finally, we discuss implications for further research and for clinical practice